Head Coach Tony Dungy
On how effective Tom Moore has been with the Colts:
"He actually came and got me and put me on a plane to Minnesota. I'd never been on a place before and I was a little nervous. He coached me one year there, freshman year. And then, I think, went to the old World Football League for a year and then came back and coached me my junior and senior years, but really taught me most of what I know about offensive football and the system that we ran is similar to what we are doing now. Then, when he was with the Steelers, he was one of the people who convinced Coach Knowles to give me a shot as a free agent defensive back, so that's how we started. We never really did hookup… I coached with him for about five years with the Steelers. Then, it was just a long time of just phone calls and staying in touch and that type of things. I tried to hire him a couple times in Tampa, but the timing never did work out, so when I got offered the job here and he was already on the staff, it really was a joy for me. A treat to be able to work with him again, it's been a lot of fun."
On signing Stokley with his injury history:
"It's worked out great for us. We liked him an awful lot. We thought that last year, for us, he was the number one guy we could get to of what we wanted to do. Our doctors looked at that foot injury and said it was really going to be okay, so we didn't think it was a major injury risk. We just thought he would fit in really well. He started to give us this type of production at the tail end of last year and it just kind of carried over this year. He does a lot of the things that we need from out slot receiver. He's a really good blocker and a tough guy inside. He's quick and he can work against man coverage and more than that, he's a guy that can function without being the focal point of the offense. He can be out of the game for 15 plays and go into the game and go in and catch the first ball that comes to him. He can play a whole game and only have one ball thrown to him and it doesn't affect him. That's the kind of guy we needed in there and he's been perfect for us."
On Peyton Manning and how much of his success is his offense:
"I think that's a lot of it. Peyton is a great player, he works hard, he's very talented, but a lot of things have to come together to have the type of year that he's having. One of them is. It's his seventh year in the system, doing everything the same way, having more and more guys familiar with it. Having the guys around him being healthy, all of that goes into it, but certainly the fact that we got a lot of guys that are in their seventh, sixth, fifth year in the same system, that really does help."
On Edgerrin James being healthy this year:
"I think that's what's really made us this year. Edgerrin is currently fighting for the rushing title. He's averaging well over 4.5 yards per carry, so people have had to honor our running game. Because we're able to run it, we're getting more opportunities to throw the play action passes in the red zone, that's opened up our scoring and made is much more efficient. Last year we kicked a ton of field goals, we scoring a lot on the red zone, this year we're scoring touchdowns and I think that really goes back to Edgerrin and the running game."
On what stands out about the Ravens' secondary:
"I think the thing that stands out is their competitiveness. They have not given up a lot of touchdown passes, they tackle really well. Balls that end up getting caught out there, they somehow get the guys down and they make you play another down. They don't give you big plays and because of that, if you have to make a lot of plays against them, they've got enough athleticism that somewhere along the line someone makes a play to stop you. I really think it's kind of a heart issue where they just say, 'Hey we don't want to let people get in the end zone no matter what, no matter how and you can see that carry over into the defense'."
On the Peyton possibly breaking Dan Marino's record and if it will be a relief when he has accomplished that:
"It's a little bit unbelievable. To answer your first question, we would like it to go away as soon as possible. I was hoping we'd break it two weeks ago, so we could put it behind us, but it's something we're going to have to deal with until it does get broken. I think our veteran guys have really done a good job of helping our team stay focused and not really worry about it. I've seen this offense do some unbelievable things and we kind of had the same thing two years ago—Marvin Harrison was chasing at that time, I think it was Herrmann Moore's record and he broke it in week 12 or 13 and ended up breaking it by 23, something like that. You can't really fathom that. I was around for Marino's year. I was defensive coordinator at Pittsburgh that year and I'd really never seen anything like it and to have somebody have a chance to break it in week 14, I never would have thought that would happen."
On if he's altered his offensive game plan for Ed Reed and the Ravens' defense:
"Not really. You just have to know that you have to be careful with the ball and protect the ball. That's the thing with this defense is they have playmakers and he's certainly one of the biggest, but obviously [Ray] Lewis and [Chris] McAlister and [Gary] Baxter and all those guys back there. When the ball is around them, they can catch it, they fly around, they knock a lot of balls loose, and they get the fumbles, so you have to play a sound game. You can't be careless with the ball at all around any of those guys."
On how teams have tried to account for their offense:
"We've seen a lot of different schemes and fortunately because of the experience and the fact that most of the guys have been in this, we can dial up what we need to in the middle of the game. Green Bay tried to pressure us every single down, other people have played all coverage and rushed three guys, and people have done a mixture of in between. That's one of the things about it, we don't do a whole lot, so whatever people throw at us, we usually have a chance to look at the pictures and try to come up with a plan of attack against it."
On if they have a small group of plays they run from:
"Yeah don't have many plays, formations, we're not a team that's shifting and going in motion different things here. We're pretty much lining up and playing and trying to do what we do based on what the defense shows us. Baltimore does a great job of disguising their look and blitzing when you don't think they're coming and coming off one side when you think they're coming off another side. Those kinds of things we're going to have to deal with. Because we don't do a lot I think it helps us."
On the Ravens' offensive line:
"They're big guys, they're powerful. We had Jonathan [Ogden] in the Pro Bowl last year and he's a tremendous player and if they gets you going where the game turns into that where it's just a running game and they're pounding on you, they're going to win their share of physical batt
